Thread: Claude Peteet Mariculture Center Ground Breaking

http://www.orangebeach.ws/component/...round-breaking

[size=14pt]Claude Peteet Mariculture Center Ground Breaking[/size]


December 6, 2011 - Gulf Shores, AL (GSA) - On December 12th the Marine Resources Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will break ground on a new laboratory and administration building for the Claude Peteet Mariculture Center in Gulf Shores. The Marine Resources Division is responsible for the management of Alabama's marine resources and the Claude Peteet Center has contributed to that mission for over thirty years with its research into marine and estuarine ecology.

Krebs Architecture & Engineering teamed with Lord Aeck & Sargent to provide architectural and civil engineering services on the 31,500 square foot project. The laboratory houses tanks and open raceways that hold over 100,000 gallons of water for fish, fry, algae, and zooplankton. Infrastructure to support these marine environments includes modifications to the salt water pipeline from the Gulf of Mexico and the brackish water pipeline from the intracoastal waterway."

...

:yippee:
http://www.outdooralabama.com/news/release.cfm?ID=988

[size=14pt]Claude Peteet Mariculture Center Construction Begins[/size]

December 15, 2011


Gov. Robert Bentley joined Conservation Commissioner N. Gunter Guy Jr. and other dignitaries Monday to celebrate the start of a $9.56 million construction project at Claude Peteet Mariculture Center in Gulf Shores.

Marine Resources Director Chris Blankenship said the project will add a 21,000-square-foot laboratory and hatchery facility and an 8,000-square-foot administration building to the current Marine Resources Division facilities, which were built in 1973.

Funds for the project will come primarily from federal sources, including the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Emergency Relief Program.

“This will be a multipurpose facility, depending on what we need to do,” said Blankenship, who said plans for the new facility have been in the works for about five years. “If we need to do some restocking, then we can do that on species like Florida pompano, red drum, spotted seatrout or any species that are in peril and need some help. We can also do a lot of research to help with the management of other species, like spawning research, life history, and life cycle studies. We can also do some oil-related work if there is a need.”

Economist Semoon Chang of the University of South Alabama said the construction will create 167 direct jobs and 320 indirect jobs. Once construction is complete, Blankenship anticipates 10-12 new Marine Resources employees will be added to help operate the facility.

In the current economic downturn, Gov. Bentley said every single job is important.

“The research here will help create jobs,” Gov. Bentley said. “We have 9,750 people who work in our commercial seafood industry and 4,719 working in our recreational fishing industry. When we have our offshore species doing well, it really makes a difference. We really need to support those industries, because they create a lot of jobs in this area.

“But also, this construction will create jobs. Every job we create will help one more person, one more family. That is our No. 1 goal, to put people back to work.”

Blankenship said the 51 employees in Marine Resources help manage Alabama’s coastal fisheries, which include oystering, crabbing, shrimping, all the commercial and recreational fishing, seafood retailer inspections, as well as long-term monitoring of the coastal ecosystem.

Commissioner Guy said it was apparent an upgrade was sorely needed on his first visit to the Gulf Shores mariculture center.

“The Claude Peteet Mariculture Center has needed a facelift for some time now,” Guy said. “When this work is completed, we’ll have a great new facility so new research can be done. I hope, too, that this facility will be a valuable asset as we continue to assess the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the waters of our coast. Hopefully, through the work of this facility, we will keep those fisheries – oysters, shrimp, all those types of seafood – safe and thriving.”

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources promotes wise stewardship, management and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through five divisions: Marine Police, Marine Resources, State Parks, State Lands, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. To learn more about ADCNR visit www.outdooralabama.com.

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http://www.outdooralabama.com/resear...ure-center.cfm


Claude Peteet Mariculture Center, operated by the Alabama Marine Resources Division, is located roughly halfway between Bon Secour Bay and Wolf Bay on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores, Baldwin County, Alabama.


CPMC has been utilized for many activities since its construction in 1973, including basic and applied research into the intricacies of estuarine and marine ecology.

Much of the initial work sought to expand aquaculture's horizons, to add names to the list of fish and invertebrates which could be cultured in closed aquatic systems.

More recently, the station has been used as a recovery tool, the production site for thousands of striped bass and red drum for annual restocking of depleted coastal fisheries.

CPMC is used in a support role for coastal fishery management. Facilities at CPMC include wet and dry lab space, shop and storage facilities, and brackish water pond space.

Good science is encouraged and fostered by the brackish water pond layout at CPMC. Each of the 35 lined culture ponds are virtually identical in size (0.11 hectares), shape (rectangular, roughly 2:1 length to width), and volume (approx. 1 million L each), and provide tremendous potential for replicated experimentation.

All ponds are equipped with piers for monitoring and catch basins for harvesting cultured species.

Each pond has a concrete catch basin approximately 12' long x 6' wide x 18" deep, for consolidating culture organisms for harvest. A 6" drain line (PVC) was installed that drains into a central ditch/in turn to a 36" culvert that returns water back to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.


Facilities include closed, recirculating culture systems for brood fish management (approx. 4,700 L) and larval/juvenile rearing (approx. 14,000 L). Temperature control for these two systems is common, through a single 7.5 ton, 100% forced air heat pump. Temperature control is stable and precise, but not highly nor rapidly variable. A brood management area with approx. 13,500 L water capacity and precise, rapid control of temperature and photoperiod, and mass production facilities for algae and rotifers/brine shrimp are in good working order at CPMC. Flow-through wet lab space for brief holding, processing, treating, etc., of fish, shrimp, etc., totals approx. 23,000 L. Dry laboratory space for microscope work, chemicals, meters, etc., and restroom facilities complete the CPMC laboratory.

Three greenhouses contain a series of assorted sized plastic and fiberglass circular and rectangular tanks. They range in size from 30 gallons to 5,000 gallons and are used as larval and juvenile culture tanks.

A fourth greenhouse contains six recirculating fiberglass tanks (each tank is 5' x 12' in diameter containg 5000 gallons) which are used as maturation tanks to induce red snapper to spawn. Each tank is individually controlled with respect to temperature and photo-period.

All ponds have been backfllled with approx. 18 in. (450 mm) of topsoil to promote the benefits of a healthy benthos. Rapid drain-and-fill turnover is acheived from the high-volume submersible pump installed in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Fall, 1994. An entire row of ponds has been fitted with aeration via blowers and PVC pipe and valves. Discharge from all culture activities is recycled through an artificial, 0.4-hectare salt marsh built specifically for removing pollutants and improving overall discharge water quality.

"The laboratory houses tanks and open raceways that hold over 100,000 gallons of water for fish, fry..."

LOL

I'd harvest a couple for them, if asked.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2...nter_to_u.html

[size=14pt]Gulf Shores marine center to undergo big upgrades[/size]
Published: Saturday, December 24, 2011, 9:39 PM Updated: Saturday, December 24, 2011, 9:52 PM
By Jeff Dute al.com


MOBILE, Alabama -- A $9.56 million update to the 38-year-old Alabama Marine Resources Division Claude Peteet Mariculture Center in Gulf Shores started with a ceremonial groundbreaking last week.

From the shovels of dirt turned by Gov. Robert Bentley, conservation department commissioner Gunter Guy Jr. and others will ultimately rise a 21,000-square-foot laboratory and hatchery facility and an 8,000-square-foot administration building that will add to the current Marine Resources Division facilities built in 1973.

Upon completion in mid-2013, the state will also have gained long-term infrastructure to aid scientists in research vital to the conservation and propagation of resources determined to be at risk now and those that may become threatened in the future, said MRD director Chris Blankenship.

"This will be a multipurpose facility, depending on what we need to do," Blankenship said. "If we need to do some restocking, then we can do that on species like Florida pompano, red drum, spotted seatrout or any species that are in peril and need some help. We can also do a lot of research to help with the management of other species, like spawning research, life history and life cycle studies. We can also do some oil-related work if there is a need."

MRD chief biologist Kevin Anson said that latter aspect of the facility's capability could become even more important as results of the ongoing Natural Resource Damage Assessment in the wake of the BP oil spill become available.

"There is a lot of research going on now as part of the NRDA process that will let us know what resources have been impacted and which have suffered the most injury," Anson said. "Those results will drive a lot of our funding and will in some degree determine which species are tapped for restoration."

Anson added that the new center is being built so its configuration can be changed easily to accommodate switches in research or management needs.

Besides any operating and research money derived from oil-spill related research grants and/or fines, Anson said the facility's main source of income will continue to be derived from saltwater license sales and federal Sportfish Restoration Act funds.

Those dollars are collected in the form of excise taxes on sales of fishing-related equipment. States are reimbursed from that pool of money based on the number of saltwater licenses they sell annually.

Funds to build the new mariculture center will come primarily from federal sources, including the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration through the Emergency Relief Program.

Anson said the old facility has been in a state of worsening disrepair since Hurricane Ivan destroyed the old Gulf State Park Pier in September 2004. The pier housed a pumping station that fed the volume of saltwater necessary to rear estuarine species through several miles of pipe. Multiple major Gulf hurricanes in 2005 dashed any hope of quickly reconnecting that vital artery.

When it became clear that federal Emergency Disaster Recovery Program funds would ultimately become available, Anson said the decision was made not to spend money on the current crumbling facility but to develop plans for a new center.

Since the switch was flipped two years ago on the pumping station at the new Gulf State Park Pier and saltwater once again flowed to the center, Anson said the majority of research has been conducted in conjunction with Auburn University and centered on bait-shrimp production.

Independent estimates provided by the state suggest construction will create 167 direct jobs and 320 indirect jobs. Once construction is complete, Blankenship anticipates 10-12 new Marine Resources employees will be added to help operate the facility.

Guy said it was apparent an upgrade was sorely needed on his first visit to the Gulf Shores mariculture center.

"The Claude Peteet Mariculture Center has needed a facelift for some time now," Guy said. "When this work is completed, we'll have a great new facility so new research can be done. I hope, too, that this facility will be a valuable asset as we continue to assess the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the waters of our coast.

"Hopefully, through the work of this facility, we will keep those fisheries -- oysters, shrimp, all those types of seafood -- safe and thriving."

I am really looking forward to this positive development.

2013 just cannot come soon enough.